Boat maintenance.net carnage

May 25, 2022, 11:01 AM

Mclovin's post about the jon boat got me to thinking about my boat this weekend. Last weekend I went to take out and started the engine, but no water was coming out..from anywhere, or really even going in. I checked the normal stuff..is the water connection on, is the tell tale "pisser" clogged up, or even is the thermostat blocked. It was none of that.

I'm meticulous about flushing this thing out and always checking the water pressure etc. It's never run hot..or even warm. I've read that outboard engines need water to keep them cool, and I guess that's true. But srsly...I have no idea what happened here. I've changed out dozens of impellers and water pumps over the years on outboards of all sizes and brands, and NEVER seen anything like this. The mechanic where I bought the boat suggested that maybe a plastic bag got caught around the water pickups long enough to run it hot and fell off before I saw it. I'm going with that theory. Weirdly, it worked fine last year before I put it up in December.

The engine has a little less than 200 hours (189.6 to be exact) on it, and I've never changed the impeller. I figured I'd do it this summer as a maintenance , when I got around to it. Well, that time necessarily came sooner than I thought it would. I took it all apart Monday and found...this.

That melted, black impeller spins (or it did for a while) in the stainless steel cup, and that sits in the white housing. The cup is held in place by two tabs that lock it in the housing.

The impeller apparently got so hot it glued itself to that stainless cup and then ended up spinning the stainless cup in the white housing. So much so, that the washer there you see on the top of the stainless cup got hot enough to weld itself to the stainless cup. That impeller/cup assembly spun enough that it almost bored through the white plastic housing. You can see the destruction on it as well.

Inside of the the stainless cup is filled with melted impeller, "gooed" to the stainless. You can also see the stainless washer that welded itself to the cup.

What a mess. I put an entire water pump assembly in it, all new washers and attachments, greased it all up, changed the engine oil and lower unit oil, and put it all back together. I hope to see if it works this weekends.

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Just bigger parts; lower unit would be a little heavier. The last water pump I changed was on my Yamaha F250 on my Grady. It was MUCH heavier than my current F200.

Boat mechanics are pretty notorious about leaving the boat a mess. You'd think they'd care enough to not do that...but they don't. The last time I had to get work done on my boat by a mechanic they had to remove the lower unit (to replace the motor mounts) and left all of the bolts on the lower unit loose. Like finger tight loose. I found that at the sand bar leaning up against the engine and notice one of the bolts about to all out. And these were the good mechanics in town.

$2K isn't bad for new hydraulic steering. Parts were probably in the $1500 range, and they had to take out your old steering cable and helm, and install the new stuff, then bleed it.

Boat maintenance.net carnage

It's taken over a month just to get the outboard

You've got a hole in your engine?***

Nope. Where the live well was***

stick a plug in it.

Re: stick a plug in it.

You don't know my son

stick.....stick your #### in it***

Well there's your problem

Impeller?

Its the exact same for your 150 as it is your 90.

Yeah, parts is prolly right, I initially though he said he

Is there a serial # on it? I'd prob contact the manufacturer

I take it you do not recommend them?

Re: I take it you do not recommend them?

I like ole Byron Morris, and think he does good work

So glad I never became a "boat guy"

100% this.

I've been around boats and water my entire life.

Same, I genuinely have no idea what people without one do

I've wondered that as well.

Yea, when we want to go on the water, we just go rent one

Its not a horror story.

I guess I've had repair work done....ONCE in the last

Or only use theme 3x a year.

My I/O boat is 9 years old

If I didn't know better...

No

Sorry, I should add... started and shut off. No

They must have done while I wasn't there.

The good news is that the 300 degree water

I doubt any water ever got to the engine water jacket***

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